From Pune to Delhi, riverfront projects are all the rage. But evidence shows they harm rivers

On a Sunday morning earlier this month, around 800 citizens of Pune gathered in the locality of Baner. The group walked along the Mula river for around 20 minutes, before settling down in a grove where it merged with the Ramnadi river.

There, the Punekars recited poems and slogans in protest against the Pune riverfront project, a draft plan for which was prepared by the Pune Municipal Corporation in 2017. Not far from where they were, bulldozers had been at work, laying down mud to prepare for construction.

For the riverfront project, the corporation will build embankments along a 44-km stretch of the Mula, also known as Mula-Mutha after it merges with the Mutha river in Pune, with the stated objective of reducing the risk of flooding and reducing the river’s pollution.

About 1,300 km away in New Delhi, too, a riverfront project came into focus recently.

The Delhi Development Authority has been planning a similar riverfront along the Yamuna for many years, with the stated aim of improving the quality of the water and creating recreational zones such as parks for the public.

The plan took some shape in 2010, but then saw years of slow progress – the project regained attention in February when the Bharatiya Janata Party upon winning…

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